the syntropy series: life grows in the concave places

are you trying to thrive on the side of a cliff?

So you can listen to the article AND fold your laundry at the same time ;-)

But check out the article for links & helpful images.

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Note: The second half of this article is for paid subscribers, which you will see towards the end of the article, with my lil explanation as to why I made this decision. If you want to support the time & love & labor I put into this work, I would be honored and grateful to accept this reciprocity.

// dialogic circle update\

The circles are officially full! If you are sad that you missed them and want to be involved in the springtime round, stay tuned in to this newsletter; I will give a little announcement when it’s ready. Also, send me a line via email and I will make sure to keep you on a list that I alert when the next circle arrives in time & space. 

~ lighting recap ~

In the previous article of the syntropy series, I talked about how syntropic agriculture teaches us that softness does not equal weakness, that succession (preparing the soil for the next generation of souls) is the cornerstone of life, and how assigning a hierarchy of value to our individual weaknesses and strengths points to our lack trust in the intelligence of the planet and reveals how we harbor a comical amount of trust in our own human intelligence. We do not have the power to discern what is Good and what is Bad; we are mere mortals. We are parts of the sum, not the overseers of the whole.  

These articles need to be read in order only insofar as the vocabulary of syntropic agriculture won’t fully make sense unless you have the prior knowledge offered by the previous article, as they sprout in distinct phases of succession ;-) (See that’s a syntropy joke, you have to know the context.) 

~ quick poll ~

I appreciate you weighing in :-)

Today’s syntropic tid bit: 

\life grows in the concave spaces//

He stood at the front of the room and started the first lesson of the first day. Look at this valley, these mountains, he pointed: “Concave places can birth syntropy, convex places house entropy.” 

note in which part of the landscape the complex life grows (hint: follow the chlorophyll)

the womb is concave. 

fertile valleys are concave. 

the place where you sleep and dream is a womb with drywall that holds you in. 

the ocean floor is a mystical basin. 

water pools in the well of a tree. 

in the space between roots I find mushrooms fruiting.

groves of elder in the flatland of a farm hugged by windbreaks. 

concavity in the supple hole my finger pushes into the soft soil, making the bed for a seed. 

the soft inside of a hug. 

the space between lines of a poem. 

You already know this principle to be true. 

If you think about convex spaces, you know complex life struggles at the top of a hill, or the side of a cliff. 

The earth’s gravity enforces this law. Wind blows, soil erodes, water washes nutrients and seeds away, the sun blasts & takes moisture with it. In convex spaces, gravity takes all her reapings with her, the treasures she pulls towards her core slipping and sliding, until they can reach a resting place of concavity. 

Here, in these convex places, entropic systems reign. Here we find exclusive, sparse communities where only simple, rugged lifeforms thrive, because more pieces of the lego house (ctrl+F “lego”) are dispersed than pieced together. 

Alternately, the concave spaces are where energy is stored, and where resources pool. 

The concave is where syntropy happens. Where simple structures become complex. When there is shelter from the wind, protection from direct sunlight, barriers against soil erosion, and pools to hold water, life can adapt. Phases of succession and stratification proceed with gusto. 

Plants and other life forms need a pooling of resources and the protection of shelter to develop the diverse ecosystems that allow them to dance to the syntropic rhythms of life, moving from simple to complex. 

\Because we are nature, we too can learn from this observation//

(as always, my friends) 

We too must create concave spaces where we can thrive. In filtered doses, wind, sun, and water are our precious sources of life.  In unsheltered excess, they can throw us into entropic processes. Similarly, we humans need filtered doses of the elements, as well as the non-elemental essentials of life, such as suffering, play, work, and struggle.

The question is: how do you create concave places to shelter your internal ecosystem so that your spirit can grow, thrive, and complexify?

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Okay, hi! This is very nerve-wracking for me, but I am introducing a paywall for the latter part of half of my articles each month. This is to create an opportunity for reciprocity for my work and time. Writing & recording audio takes a lot of time :) I absolutely love this work, and I also love surviving in this rickety empire.

 The more reciprocity, the more time & energy I can devote to writing. If you feel eager to read more but the paywall is too burdensome of a financial barrier, please please reach out to me. 

There is a whole beautiful rest of the article that shimmers just beyond this paywall, and it speaks to the internal human landscape & its connection to this principle of concavity.